Bello sparks Hun past Stuart Country Day in field hockey action

Martin Griff/The TimesHun's Francesca Bello, right (black shirt) in this file photo playing against Robbinsville, scored two goals and two assists to lead her team past Stuart Country Day Wednesday.

PRINCETON TOWNSHIP — The nerves, for Francesca Bello, were more palpable than usual. Certainly, the fact that the Hun junior and her field hockey teammates were getting set to take on archrival Stuart Country Day had something to do with that.

But a knee injury to Hun’s Olivia Albanese also necessitated that head coach Kathy Quirk shift Bello from left wing back to center midfielder, a position she had not played since her freshman year.

“We told her that she’d be a center-mid but that we’d need her to score,” Quirk said.
The Flemington resident was happy to oblige as she tallied a pair of goals and a pair of assists to power Hun to a 4-1 win over Stuart Wednesday afternoon at Natale Family Field.

“I was really nervous walking onto the field today,” Bello said. “A lot of running comes along with playing midfield, because you’re right there in the center of the field.”

Those nerves were far from evident.

Bello took a feed from Alex Kane and ripped it home to give Hun an early lead just 2:43 into the game.

“I told them that we needed to come out and score first, and that if we did we’d set the tone,” Quirk said. “We’re not a good team to play catch-up with.”

Stuart evened the contest at 1-all just over four minutes later when Kate Donohue scored on an assist from Tori Hannah, but it was all Bello and Hun for the duration of the game.

Bello put a laser on net with just over four minutes left to play that Vicki Leach redirected home for the lead.

“I was on the top of the circle and didn’t really have much of an option, because I was on my weakside,” Bello said. “I just tried to send it into the opposite post. Vickie is great at that, and she just put it in.”

Carey Million blasted home a beautifully-placed pass from Bello at the 20:29 mark of the second and capped her day with an unassisted goal just over two minutes later.
“Cary and I work well together,” Bello said of the third goal.

“I saw her at the top of the circle, and I know she has probably the hardest hit on the team. I knew I just had to get the ball to her and that she would hit it in.”

Just two years removed from snapping a seven-year winless streak against Stuart, any win the Raiders can manage against the Tartans is still meaningful.

“A win is always great,” Bello said. “I know my freshman year after we beat them after the seven-year drought, it was exiting. Last year, we lost 1-0 with 12 seconds left. That was really devastating.”

Despite dropping to 3-8 on the season, Tartans’ head coach Missy Bruvik was pleased with the effort her players put forth.

“That’s how we’ve been playing all year,” Bruvik said. “We started out with PDS, Lawrenceville and Peddie. It’s been a strong schedule, which I like. The fact that the girls have hung in every game is a testament to them. I don’t think they look at the score and think anything’s over. That’s all you can ask for.”